Season 2 Masteries: Top Picks in Last Epoch

Last Epoch boasts an impressive array of 15 Mastery classes, each serving as a specialized subclass that allows you to refine your build's focus. From the traditional Sorcerer to the unique Falconer, who utilizes a bird companion for aerial combat, the variety can be overwhelming. This **Last Epoch Mastery tier list** is designed to guide you through the best choices for your gameplay style and build optimization.

Remember, you're not locked into a single Mastery. It's common to diversify by investing in multiple Masteries to create a min-maxed build. You can allocate points to the initial half of any other Mastery's passive tree and change your Mastery at the Respec NPC in the End of Time, giving you flexibility to experiment and optimize.

How We Ranked the Best and Worst Masteries in Last Epoch

The strength of a Mastery is determined by how effectively it enhances your build's key components: clearing speed, boss damage, and defense. Builds thrive on various stats, such as 'more' damage multipliers, which are more potent than increased damage multipliers, critical hit stats, flat damage, and armor shred capabilities. Defensively, Masteries offering critical hit damage reduction, resistance options, and damage reduction are highly valued for their ability to mitigate random damage spikes and provide flexibility in gearing.

Mastery skills are evaluated based on their damage output, utility in both boss fights and map clearing, and overall feel. Skills that may rank highly but feel clunky to play can affect a Mastery's position in our tier list. If you're comfortable with complex mechanics like snapshotting, you might rank certain Masteries higher.

Last Epoch Tier List: Best Season 2 Masteries

Contribute to the community Tier List by voting on the best Last Epoch Masteries!

Last Epoch Season 2 Masteries Tier List

S-Tier: Paladin, Void Knight
Best overall clear, bossing, and defense, with no significant weaknesses

A-Tier: Falconer, Bladedancer, Shaman, Druid
Strong clear, bossing, and/or defense. Lacking significantly in one area

B-Tier: Marksman, Lich, Beastmaster
Good clear, bossing, and/or defense. Lacking significantly in one or more areas

C-Tier: Necromancer, Forge Guard, Runemaster
Decent to good clear, bossing, and/or defense. Lacking significantly in one or more areas

D-Tier: Spellblade, Warlock, Sorcerer
Poor to good clear, bossing, and/or defense. Lacking significantly in multiple areas

Below, we delve into the details of each Mastery, featuring example builds from our friends at Maxroll.gg to help you understand their strengths and potential.

S-Tier Last Epoch Masteries

S-Tier: Void Knight

If you're looking to dominate the battlefield with a giant purple sword and unmatched survivability, the **Void Knight** is your go-to. Its signature skill, **Erasing Strike**, scales exceptionally well, transitioning smoothly into the **World Splitter** version. The **Warpath** build is also highly viable, offering both top-tier performance and ease of play for new and casual players alike.

Void Knight excels in mobility and effective health (eHP), boasting impressive clear and bossing capabilities. The ability to move and deal damage simultaneously enhances its damage per second (DPS) while maintaining a smooth gameplay experience. With 200% added damage effectiveness on all skills (and 600% on Erasing Strike), it's a powerhouse. The passive tree provides resistance to Physical and Void damage, leech, damage reduction, and more, with standout nodes like **Sorrow & Steel**, **Void Corruption**, and **Mortal Cleave**.

For more Void Knight builds, explore options like Smite Void Knight, which offers fast, tanky, long-range combat, or Time Rot Void Knight, which provides significant sustain and burst damage.

S-Tier: Paladin

Following the Sentinel rework, **Paladin** has proven its worth, with **Judgement** Paladin dominating the Terminate Uber Abberoth race. Paladin's skills are exceptionally potent, offering high damage and robust defense. **Judgement** alone boasts 350% damage effectiveness and a 200% critical multiplier, complemented by healing capabilities. Other skills like **Symbols of Hope** and **Holy Aura** enhance both damage and defense, while **Healing Hands** provides substantial healing for tough bosses.

The Paladin's passive tree is loaded with resistances, recovery, damage reduction, and more, featuring standout nodes such as **Covenant of Light**, **Covenant of Protection**, and **Reverence of Duality**. While **Judgement** is a standout, **Bleed Hammerdin** and **Smite** offer strong alternatives for those looking to experiment with different playstyles.

A-Tier Last Epoch Masteries

A-Tier: Falconer

Initially overpowered, **Falconer** has been balanced to be "just under OP" by EHG, yet remains incredibly strong. Its unmatched movement speed and top-tier damage, enhanced by easy access to critical hit multipliers and Dexterity scaling, make it a favorite. **Aerial Assault** allows you to combine movement and damage effectively.

However, Falconer's defense is its Achilles' heel. You'll need to rely on **Dodge**, **Silver/Dusk Shrouds**, and **Glancing Blows** to stay alive, and the lack of resistance options on the tree forces you to prioritize them elsewhere. For a high-risk, high-reward experience, try the Zero HP Ballista Falconer build, which requires careful management of incoming damage. **Umbral Blades** is another top build, offering a dynamic playstyle with a Dexterity focus.

A-Tier: Bladedancer

While Falconer garners more attention, **Bladedancer** offers comparable strength and versatility. It excels in clear, single-target damage, and defense, thanks to high-DPS skills and the powerful **Lethal Mirage** for invincibility frames. If you enjoy fast melee combat, this is an excellent choice.

The passive tree provides efficient damage scaling, movement speed, dodge reliability, and damage reduction, with key nodes like **Pursuit**, **Argent Veil**, and **Death’s Door**. Popular builds include **Shadow Daggers**, **Shadow Cascade**, **Chakrams**, and **Lethal Mirage** with **Black Blade of Chaos**. The Chakram build is notably viable for Uber Abberoth.

A-Tier: Beastmaster

As the summoner Mastery, **Beastmaster** offers strong potential, finishing second in the Uber Abberoth race. While not as tanky as Void Knight or Paladin, its **Storm Crows** and **Summon Wolf** companion buffs provide top-tier DPS. Builds like **Poison Nova Scorpion** are well-rounded but may feel slow compared to other classes. Options like **Haste** via **The Scavenger** belt can help mitigate this.

The passive tree offers damage reduction, health, healing, and companion support, though it lacks direct damage boosts. You'll need to complement this with other sources of damage.

A-Tier: Shaman

A versatile Mastery for melee and elemental builds, **Shaman** excels in high-level Arena pushing, reaching Waves 500-700+. Its **Tornado** skill offers more damage than expected with its vacuum effect, while **Earthquake** and **Avalanche** are less popular due to high mana costs and clunkiness. **Summon Storm Totem** is a favored skill for its decoy and damage capabilities.

The passive tree provides penetration, cooldown reduction, mana, auto-trigger skills, and more, with standout nodes like **Fist of Stone**, **Lagon’s Answer**, and **Conflux**. Shaman's versatility and strong support make it a solid choice for various builds.

A-Tier: Druid

Known for shapeshifting, **Druid** shines with **Storm Werebear**, offering great DPS and effective health. It can tackle Abberoth, high corruption levels, and high Arena waves, though it's slower at farming. **Werebear** skills like **Rampage** and **Maul** provide movement and damage, while **Roar** offers crowd control and sustain.

The passive tree is rich with health, mana, sustain, and damage nodes, with highlights like **Spirit Warden**, **Focused Wrath**, and **Primal Shifter**. While **Spriggan Form** is strong, it's better paired with other Masteries. **Swarmblade** and **Entangling Roots** are less favored, but the Druid's flexibility makes it a compelling choice.

B-Tier Last Epoch Masteries

B-Tier: Lich

Embracing the 'sacrifice life for power' archetype, **Lich** holds its own with strong skills like **Reaper Form** and a robust passive tree. **Drain Life** is useful for mana conversion, while **Aura of Decay** struggles due to scaling issues. **Death Seal** offers a significant damage boost and damage reduction, balancing risk and reward.

**Reaper Form** is a versatile movement and damage skill with health recovery, though it requires careful management of life drain. The passive tree supports Intelligence stacking, mana, health, ward, and recovery, with standout nodes like **Dance With Death** and **Hollow Lich**.

B-Tier: Marksman

As the classic Archer subclass, **Marksman** shines with builds like **Hail of Arrows** and **Heartseeker**. **Hail of Arrows** benefits from the **Sanguine Hoard** quiver, while **Heartseeker** offers auto-targeting projectiles. **Multishot** and **Hail** provide solid damage and efficiency, though **Detonating Arrow** falls short.

The passive tree supports dodge, crit, movement speed, and damage, with key nodes like **Heightened Senses** and **Thief’s Quiver**. While not top-tier in defense, Marksman excels in damage and clear speed.

C-Tier Last Epoch Masteries

C-Tier: Necromancer

A summoner Mastery with an undead twist, **Necromancer** performs well in Arena, reaching 200-400 Waves. **Summon Skeletal Mage** reduces enemy health regeneration and can serve as a traversal skill, focusing on a single powerful minion. **Sacrifice** sees little play due to poor personal damage support, while **Dread Shade** offers significant damage boosts at the cost of health.

**Assemble Abomination** summons a tanky minion, and **Summon Wraith** provides respectable damage with various elemental options. The passive tree offers health, recovery, minion support, and more, though defense remains a weak point.

C-Tier: Runemaster

A unique caster archetype, **Runemaster** allows spell combination via **Rune of Invocation**, offering versatility and impressive damage. **Hydrahedron** and **Focus Autobomber** are viable builds, with the former being 1000 corruption viable. **Flame Rush** and **Frost Wall** provide strong damage and utility, while **Runebolt** and **Glyph of Dominion** offer crit and control.

The passive tree supports Ward, mana, elemental debuffs, and more, making Runemaster competitive despite not being at the top tiers.

C-Tier: Forge Guard

While **Forge Guard** has unique build options, it struggles to compete with higher tiers. **Manifest Armor** rewards STR/armor stacking, **Shield Throw** offers high damage effectiveness, and **Ring of Shields** provides defense. **Smelter’s Wrath** and **Forge Weapon** have potential but are limited by channeling and situational defense.

The passive tree offers health, stun chance, and damage scaling, though it lacks standout nodes compared to other Masteries.

D-Tier Last Epoch Masteries

D-Tier: Spellblade

Despite being in D-Tier, **Spellblade** remains viable with strong DPS but struggles with defense. **Flame Reave** is underwhelming due to its limitations, while **Enchant Weapon** boosts DPS and offers elemental support. **Firebrand** is enjoyable but limited in damage, and **Surge** and **Shatter Strike** provide mobility and crit-focused damage.

The passive tree offers Ward support and damage scaling, though it lacks standout nodes to compete with top tiers.

D-Tier: Warlock

Focusing on damage over time and curses, **Warlock** is accessible for new players but lacks the competitive edge of higher Masteries. **Cthonic Fissure**, **Profane Veil**, and **Chaos Bolts** are key skills, with **Profane Veil** offering temporary invincibility. Defense is a significant weakness, relying mainly on high eHP and recovery.

The passive tree supports Fire/Necrotic and Bleed builds, but overall, Warlock struggles to stand out.

D-Tier: Sorcerer

A classic caster, **Sorcerer** is viable but lacks standout features. **Frostbite Frostclaw** is a solid build, though it faces mana issues and speed limitations. **Static Orb** and **Ice Barrage** offer strong stats and utility, while **Arcane Ascendance** and **Black Hole** provide versatility and damage. **Meteor** demands significant mana investment.

The passive tree supports Ward, damage, and elemental debuffs, but **Mana Bulwark** proves ineffective in practice. For more builds, visit our Last Epoch 1.2 builds page.